Moving into a 55+ manufactured home community was like the first day of Kindergarten for Don and I. We were as excited as a couple of kids and anxious to learn the ABC’s of our brand new home and neighborhood. It didn’t take long to get familiar with the twists and turns of the neat, wide streets that led to our house.
We arrived a few hours ahead of the moving van and just wandered around our manufactured home looking over the standard and optional features we had chosen earlier. I was very pleased with the blend of textures and colors of carpeting, vinyl flooring and countertops. Actually I was relieved to see our selections looking so perfect together. The décor was even better than I had visualized from over 2,500 miles away.
Don was interested in our home’s essential systems - such as electrical, gas and water. He walked around flushing toilets, turning light switches on and off, making sure the AC and furnace was working, checking hot and cold running water in sinks, showers and tubs, running the garbage disposal, testing the garage door opener and so on.
The moving van arrived on schedule at 9:00 A.M. and the unloading began right away. Since everything had been carefully labeled in Florida the movers knew where every box and piece of furniture belonged. Don’s job was to check the inventory against each item coming into the house, while I stayed inside making sure nothing was damaged or misplaced.
To make a long story short everything that was loaded in Florida was unloaded in California. Our stuff traveled across America by truck and didn’t look the worse for wear. There were a few furniture scratches that can be easily repaired, but nothing was broken. By the time we signed the Bill of Lading and the movers left Don and I were exhausted, but happy to spend the first night in our new manufactured home.
Before going to bed we decided to tackle some unpacking. We needed bed linens, towels and our coffee pot. Fortunately we had put these items in boxes labeled “open me first” and before long had the bed made and coffee prepared for the next morning. Everything was going very well when a major snag occurred. We noticed a small leak on the floor near the air conditioning unit. Pretty soon the small leak became a large puddle of water that needed wiping up every few minutes.
Although it was after nine o’clock in the evening Don called the Sun Meadows Construction Manager and he came right over. After some inspection and discussion it was decided that the leak was coming from the air conditioner. The cooling and heating contractor was called and arrived a little later to see what could be done to stop the leak.
The contractor discovered that the end of the drain line had been mistakenly encased in concrete. He removed a section of PVC pipe and replaced it with a new section that would drain properly. It took a couple of hours to get the job done, but in spite of the late hour it was done right and we have never had a bit of trouble with it since that first night.
Bottom line is there was a problem. The problem was fixed, and fixed promptly. I would like to add here that we’ve had several homes built during our years of marriage and experienced quite a few new home construction troubles. But never have we had a major problem corrected as quickly and professionally as this.
The next morning Don and I began unpacking boxes. I tackled the kitchen boxes first and was overjoyed with all the cupboard space along the kitchen walls and in the center island. The deep pots and pans drawers easily accommodated my oversized fry pans and other large pieces of cookware.
There was no need to struggle with shelf paper because all the cupboard shelves were already surfaced with an easy to clean vinyl coating at the factory. This is another nice little feature in our manufactured home that made unpacking faster and easier. By the end of the day, the kitchen was in working order with all our everyday glassware, dishes, silverware and cookware in place.
While I worked in the kitchen Don was busy unpacking bedroom, office and den boxes. Needless to say a lot of empty boxes and packing material was piling up in the garage. We wondered what to do with all this stuff and considered making a run to the dump so we could make more space for other unwanted packing materials. That’s when one of the Sun Meadows maintenance men stopped and asked if he could help. Before long he had all the packing material stuffed in plastic bags and the boxes broken down ready for garbage pickup that same day.
Our first full day in our new home was coming to a close when we decided it was time to clean up and go out for dinner. Then such a nice thing happened. The doorbell rang and two of our neighbors invited us to their home for dinner. We gratefully accepted and spent a few pleasant hours getting to know our new neighbors and enjoying a wonderful meal.
Although we are new kids on the block, several people in Sun Meadows went out of their way to help make us feel welcome. First the construction manager made sure the air conditioning leak was repaired, then the maintenance man stopped by to help us dispose of our packing materials and last but not least our new neighbors showed us unexpected hospitality with a dinner invitation to their home.
Walking back to our house we agreed that we were off to a great start and anxious to begin our new lives in a 55+ manufactured home community.
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